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Thanks to good weather, Mark Schleusener, a statistician with
the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Springfield, said that the
2023 harvest is ahead of schedule.
“We’ve had generally quite good harvest weather. No significant
delays,” Schleusener said. “Harvest has proceeded ahead of
normal pace in Illinois.”
Farmers, particularly those in the northern part of the state,
are still bringing in this year’s crops.
Schleusener reminds motorists to take it easy on the roadways.
There is still a lot of heavy equipment out on the roads.
Motorists should slow down and expect delays, he said.
The USDA’s October forecast puts the Illinois 2023 harvest
yields below those of 2022.
“We’re forecasting corn at 200 bushels per acre and soybeans at
61. Those are good numbers, not great numbers,” he said. No one
is complaining.
In spite of the drought in June when the young plants were
developing, Illinois got lucky with “a lot of smaller rains that
seemed to help at just the right times,” Schleusener said.
In early August, everybody got a good rain in a key time period.
“That rain helped the corn kernels get bigger. And it was
definitely good for soybeans. The plants got bigger and rain
spurred the soybean plants to make more pods,” he said.
Schleusener credits the August rain for the decent 2023 harvest.
In contrast, the 2022 harvest was one for the record books.
“2022 was a good year to grow practically anything, anywhere in
Illinois,” Schleusener said.
In 2022, Illinois had a record-high corn yield of 214 bushels
per acre. Soybeans came in at 63 bushels an acre, compared to
the 61 bushels that USDA has forecast for 2023.
“Not great. But good,” Schleusener said.
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